For the last months I haven’t done a lot of new funky flames. Instead I focused on other projects, but one of them is still very closely connected to creativity. This time, however, it is not an expression of my own creativity, but it is something intended to help others create beautiful things – my Little Funky Tools Sets. These are micro cutters sets of a number of specially selected and modified little tips in three different shapes – circles, ovals and teardrops. The different sizes of each shape are color-coded and easily provide great help for cutting and shaping small details and holes, texturing, dosing color recipes and more when working with different kinds of clay.

They are available in combined sets, too:

By now, I have received some wonderful feedback, and my most favorite kind of feedback is the pictures of things created with the Little Funky Tools! Thank you Artumei Artumei https://www.facebook.com/artumei.artumei:

I really like the lightness that translucent clay adds to the green leaves, and there are still tricks to learn in order to manage the liquid clay the way I want it to behave, but still, I love how these turned out:

One of my favorite color combinations is red and black. It is powerful, expressive and brings the feeling of burning flames. Here are some of the basic steps of the Millefiori cane I recently did and a pair of earrings that came out of it. Enjoy:

My preferred and most effective way for learning and developing new skills with different software (graphic, mostly) has been through video tutorials, so I use the same technique for my polymer clay and wire projects. I came up with the list below after a lot of hours of research, and I am continuously updating it with new information and resources, but this is how it looks at the moment. I value highly all these people’s efforts, they put out all this information for free and each one of them shares their unique experience. If you see yourself in the list, please receive a huge “Thank you!” from me, you are of great help!

How and what do I learn from them?

I don’t like precise following the particular designs and color palettes, so I always change the colors and/or the shapes. I usually focus on the technique that is shown, rather than the final piece. I also like to combine tutorials and apply parts from different ones in the same project. I urge you to never stop researching for new information and inspiration from other people, but it is always better to make your own interpretation of the technique, than to replicate exactly someone else’s ideas:)

And here they are:

Cindy Lietz- enormous blog – http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ and great channel- http://www.youtube.com/user/PolymerClayTutor. She makes both free and paid tutorials, on everything about polymer clay- conditioning, mixing, curing, sanding, shaping, slicing and a lot more! One of my favorite is her PcT Test Lab where she tests compatibility with different materials and best curing time. Cindy also provides a large number of tutorials on particular designs- like sweet pea flower earrings or faux jasper cabochons, or color combinations.

Tanja Jensen-http://www.scs-craft.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/SugarCharmShop. Tanja makes perfect realistic doll-house miniatures in 1:12 scale, decorations and pieces of jewelry. Her works are very detailed and precise, so if you want to work on scale miniatures, she will be of great help. She also accepts requests for particular projects in case she hasn’t done similar one yet.

Diana-http://www.youtube.com/user/archideedidiana. One more Italian:) She works both with polymer clay and wire, and makes very detailed videos, so once again you don’t need to speak the language to understand the meaning. Here you will find lots of jewelry projects, techniques and ideas.

Paulina-http://www.youtube.com/user/ElArtedePAU. And we switch to Spanish, and no, I don’t speak that either. Her videos are usually a lot of fun and with subtitles, although I often forget reading them and prefer watching what she is doing. She makes all kinds of colorful and funny pieces and is very entertaining and informative.

Hope you find this list helpful and it will give you some new options to explore with your polymer clay projects. Have fun and be creative!